1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a process of fabricating a porous silicone product, and more particularly to a porous silicone membrane for use in membrane separation of a liquid component from a liquid solution containing two or more liquid components.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 62-49897 discloses a process of fabricating a porous silicone product. The process comprises first freezing a silicone emulsion chiefly composed of a water emulsion of organopolysiloxane into a resulting frozen body followed by defrosting the frozen body to obtain a wet and spongy elastomer. Thereafter, the resulting elastomer is dried to remove the water content to thereby obtain a porous silicone product. Since this process comprises the simple steps of freezing, defrosting and drying, the porous silicone product can be easily fabricated. However, the process is found to be only effective to fabricate a silicone product with closed or non-intercommunicating cells, and is not applicable to fabricate a silicone product with open or intercommunicating cells. This means that the silicone product fabricated by the process disclosed in the above publication is effective as a gasket or a heat insulation member which requires closed cells, but cannot be utilized as a membrane or the like which necessitates open cells, for example, as a selective permeable membrane for separation of a liquid component from a liquid solution containing two or more liquid components.